In facilities where supplies need to be securely stored for use by employees, such as manufacturing plants, hospitals, offices, etc., it is desirable to hold selected items in secure storage locations. Traditionally this would be a locked storage room, or a managed storage room where a responsible party would record items taken and by whom. More recently automated storage cabinets have been introduced, which present a user interface requiring secure identification of the person accessing the cabinet, and selective unlocking of locations on that cabinet to restrict the user to just one type of item, or, where more security is required to an individual item, so that each individual item can be identified with the person who took it. The processor on each cabinet is programmable to monitor the access to the items in these fixed cabinets, allowing the current on hand inventory and the need for replenishment to be communicated to a central processor at the central pharmacy and supply storage locations.
When a user logs into the cabinet's processor, they are typically given access to multiple items, stored behind locked doors or drawers, that selectively unlock. Amongst the many items that can be stored in a cabinet, for certain items, it is desirable to limit access to just a single item type, so the processor can record exactly which items were available to the user to be taken. This is particularly true of expensive items in a manufacturing, maintenance, office or clinical environment, or items that might be desirable for user to divert for their own use such as narcotic medications in a clinic, hospital or pharmacy. In some cases, it is desirable to limit access to one individual item at a time. These more secure process are achieved by storing items in bins within locked drawers for small items, and behind locked doors in a locker configuration for larger items. The system then allows controlled access to individual bins or locker doors to each user, such as a maintenance or production worker in a manufacturing environment, a nurse in a clinical environment, or an employee in an office. The user will typically enter their own personal identification (ID) and the ID for the specific account to be charged whether that is a job number, a department, or a charge to an individual in a retail or hospital environment where a customer or patient is to be billed. Specified drawers and bins or locker doors may then be unlocked to provide access to the specified item or items. However, while allowing access to certain items, these cabinets may still prohibit access to other bins or doors to which the user may be restricted from accessing.
In order to limit access to specified lockers or bins, the lids or locker doors on each individual compartment must be able to lock and unlock when specified and must also be able to do so repeatedly without failure. This selective locking of the lids typically requires the use of various software systems to track user access and further requires mechanical, electrical, or electro-mechanical mechanisms such as solenoids integrated with each individual bin.
Because of the repeated locking and unlocking of individual containers, the tracking of user access, many of these locking mechanisms are subject to failure resulting in lids or doors which may not lock or unlock properly when needed or resulting in the incorrect lids or doors locking or unlocking improperly. Alternatively, the resulting system may be overly complex and difficult to repair or maintain. In addition to the issue of reliability, the need for a separate electromechanical device for each locked location is costly.
Thus, a system which allows for the tracking as well as locking and unlocking of selected lids or doors from a cabinet in an efficient, reliable, and repeatable manner is desired.